Defense Budget Alert

Defense Department officials are asking Congress to let the Air Force shift more than $536 million of its base-budget funds to higher priorities in fiscal year 2018, largely for research and development efforts, according to an omnibus reprogramming request signed by the Pentagon comptroller July 11.

House Republican defense hawks, worried that Congress will find itself mired in another stopgap spending measure at the end of the fiscal year, successfully spearheaded three symbolic resolutions staking out their position that a defense appropriations bill should be passed, regardless of partisan gridlock in other areas.

The Pentagon is seeking congressional permission to shift $4.3 billion between budget accounts as part of an annual reallocation of funds the U.S. military has in hand, revealing new details about Defense Department plans to develop and field hypersonic strike weapons and launching 10 new-start projects -- including a new deep-strike cannon for the Army.

Senior members of the Senate Budget Committee, concerned it may take the Defense Department 10 years to achieve a clean financial audit, are asking the Government Accountability office to review the matter, with a special focus on whether DOD is acquiring the proper information technology systems to do the job.

More "big changes" are coming to the Army's budget through next fiscal year to better align investments with the service's modernization priorities as it turns its focus to Russia and China, according to its top civilian official.

The White House strongly objects to several provisions in the Senate's fiscal year 2019 defense authorization bill, especially a section that would ban the Defense Department from doing business with Chinese telecommunications company ZTE, but the administration is not threatening to veto the legislation, according to a statement of administration policy from the Office of Management and Budget.

Senate appropriators seek to direct nearly $4 billion in additional funding to key areas of weapon system innovation including hypersonics, artificial intelligence, cyber, space, microelectronics and directed energy.

House Republicans released a 10-year budget blueprint this week -- influenced by the party's anti-deficit contingent -- that delivers mixed news for defense spending and would slash discretionary and entitlement funds.

The House Appropriations defense subcommittee has increased funding for select weapon system projects by nearly $4.5 billion in its mark of the Pentagon's fiscal year 2019 spending bill, a hike achieved in part by diverting $2 billion away from Defense Department-requested projects in order to benefit National Guard programs, aircraft procurement and purchases of additional ships.